A Knight's Tale

Hallo!

We've had a great week and hope you all have too! We signed our rental contract and will hopefully be able to access our new apartment this weekend. If so, we plan to go shopping at Ikea this week - so purchase your shares now! We also found out that our container has already made it through customs (despite the fact that we haven't registered here as we'd been waiting on our rental contract) and we'll get our stuff on October 4th! (We could even get it sooner but we're going to be traveling to Oma & Opa's and then to Munich). Yippee!!! Jonas will feel like he's in heaven when that truck finally pulls up!

Last Sunday, Oma visited. The weather was great. The kids even wore shorts! Oma brought homemade kuchen, which of course was a big hit with all of us. Thanks, Oma!

Jonas had a wonderful 3rd birthday. (I was disappointed that I couldn't make him the "proper" b-day cakes I usually do, but he didn't seem phased by it :-). And, he absolutely loved getting a few toys, wearing party hats and playing with balloons!

This weekend, we felt like we hit the jack-pot. I actually could read enough of the German newspaper to understand that there was a kid's flea market at the church near our house. So, Saturday morning, we went flea marketing Swiss-style. We found clothes, toys, books - all for less than we would have paid at the consignment stores in Charlotte. The "best buy" - Jonas' armor. He's been learning all about knights, castles, etc. ever since. We even pulled up videos on youtube to show him some of the knight's festivals that we hope to visit. (Really, what did we all do before youtube, facebook, Skype, etc?)

Next, we went shoe shopping. Fearing we were going to have to fork out a couple hundred bucks for new work shoes for Andy (poor planning on our part), we were so happy to discover the equivalent of Rack Room Shoes at the train station. Major savings!

To wrap up the day, we took the "Short Round Trip" 1 1/2 hr boat ride on Lake Zurich. We didn't get off at the "final destination", b/c we had boarded at what we thought would be the next stop. Turns out that at the final destination, the boat doesn't continue on the same path, but rather reverses direction. So, we found the boat heading to the opposite side of the Lake! Luckily, transportation in Zurich is so great that we hopped off the boat at the next stop and got on a bus back to where we needed to be. My, that would have been a long walk! Or, a long boat ride. At least we know now. (I had been trying to figure out the timing during the ride b/c it didn't compute when compared to the leg of the trip that the kids and I take almost daily. It never occurred to me that the boat switched direction :-).

Today we visited the zoo again. The Zurich Zoo is really great! The weather has been really nice the past couple of weekends. I'm not missing the heat that so many of you are experiencing! But, I'm going to be really jealous of you all when I'm up to my eyeballs in snow this winter.

More from Jonas:

On the eve of his birthday: J: So, when I wake up tomorrow it will be my birthday? M: Yes. J: When can I go to bed? (Unfortunately, that was a fleeting thought :0).

The morning after his birthday: J: Mommy, when will it be my birthday again? M: In 364 days. J: I can't wait that long!

On Friday, Andy was late getting home from work. When Jonas asked why, I said b/c daddy didn't listen to me and he went to the wrong store. The next morning, Andy wanted Jonas to go with him to the bakery. Jonas was very reluctant, saying that it was going to take a long time. Andy replied that it was just around the corner. Jonas said, "Are you going to listen to mommy this time?"

One morning, Andy's alarm clock woke Jonas up. So, I told Jonas the next time the alarm clock goes off, "Just hit daddy and tell him to turn it off." Jonas: "Ok, so will I not get a spanking for that?"

The day of the flea market, Andy was trying to convince Jonas to eat his dinner: D: Pirates always eat their pasta. J: I'm not a pirate! I'm a armor! (knight :-).

On the way back from the park today a couple was having an argument in their car while we passed in front of them at the crosswalk: M to D: Those people are fighting. J: Where? M: In their car. J: With their swords?!

And one from Andy: "I'm too American for this."

Cheers!